I finally have a few real opinions about the Duggars

[momto2Cs]

I wouldn't consider using real dishes instead of paper being a "positive" role model...or a "negative" one, either. I think the whole environmental-footprint stuff is way overdone.

 

:confused:

[mommaduck]

We typically avoid paper. But there are times where paper is handy: when we've been sick, have company, picnics. However, yes, it would bother me if that many people were using paper ALL the time. Again though, it's not my business ;)

[mommaduck]

Yeah, she has 19 children, but she also she has far more hands to help with such jobs than any of us with just a few kids or a singleton!

Yep, see it all the time here in Amish Country.

[lea_lpz]

Okay, another version of tater tot casserole

 

 

saute an onion in some olive oil (it just taste better if you saute it first)

 

add (fresh) carrots in big chunks, celery, potatoes, and frozen peas

 

Left over chicken or chicken breasts cooked up and cubed.

 

Stir in cream of chicken soup (you just can't get away from that part)

 

and some thyme and pepper. Salt to taste

 

Either cover with a pie crust or tater tots.

 

 

It is quick and easy and nice to have about once or twice in the winter.

 

 

This sounds good and fairly similar to shepherd's pie I make with with ground beef, no potatoes, and cream if mushroom soup instead. I could see this working with the tator tots on top....

 

Did you know they have sweet potato tots now?

 

Also, Sneaky Chef had a recipe to make your own tots w/ whole grains and white bean purée sneaked in....

 

Time for a revival on this thread....

 

Might try some healthier variations of tator tot casserole

[sewingmama]

Old post

[CalicoKat]

and their lifestyle. While I've never cared whether they have 1 kid or 19, I do now have some thoughts about other things. They need to put in some raised garden beds. They should stop buying jarred sauce and bagged iceberg lettuce. ;) They should also ditch the paper plates and cups. Did they not put in an industrial washing machine in with that kitchen? They could run it once a day. They should each have their own labled water bottles.

 

I also think the little ones would enjoy chickens and fetching eggs from nest boxes.

 

I hope you're all happy now. ;)

 

:iagree: What a fantastic idea. "The Duggar's Eco Make-Over."

[NotSoObvious]

All the Tater Tot haters have obviously never been to Sonic. Yum! :D

 

On the other hand, I don't believe I've ever had tater tot casserole, so I can't judge it's splurge worthiness.

 

Gag! I can't stand Sonic! Our friend owns a whole bunch of Sonics, so I've been a few times, trying to be supportive, and it's awful each time! I must be ordering the wrong things!

[Pamela H in Texas]

Okay, I *know* that this is an old thread (I read the beginning back when but never got to this last page). But....But we use paper plates. I cannot even imagine NOT doing so! Seriously. Maybe if my dishwasher could hold all the dishes and took less than an hour to run.....

[NotSoObvious]

 

 

 

Has anyone researched "Buddy system for chickens"? I'm not sure if the Maxwells have marketed anything like that yet. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

I have 3 kids and owning chickens remains one of those idealogical fantasies I engage in every spring when I walk into Southern States and see that pen of adorable chicks. Then I slap myself in the head and keep walking.

 

Hahaha! It always seems like a good idea to us late at night. Then we wake up!

[KatieJ]

Our church has a similar dishwasher that will get a rack of dishes through in less than a minute. Definitely do exist. I'd imagine you'd need a amazing hot water heater (or 4) and some stellar water pressure to make that work in a home.

 

I have used what I assume this dishwasher is. It's more of a sanitizer. You have to prerinse the dishes to almost clean and then run them thru to finish up. No other opinions here as I don't watch the show.

[Wendi]

I think they rely on convenience foods because they are fast and the kids can cook them.

 

 

 

But they have quite a lot of kids that are more than old enough to cook from scratch, and even do the grocery shopping. Why can't the oldest kids do a weekly shopping trip and prepare some meals?

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I read the whole thing just to find out why somebody would resurrect a 10month old thread about the Duggars. Disappointed to find it was only about yet another recipe for tater tots.

 

Edited to add: I'm not sure what I was expecting, though!

[Elizabeth in MN]

They do have a garden but are not very good at tending it. The reason they have disposable dishes is because they have tile floors in the house. When you have tile floors anything dropped on it shatters and shoots all over the room. Everyone is allowed one plastic cup a day and they are labeled. Canned and frozen veggies are less expensive than fresh.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Oh, we do have one cup per person. The baby has a sippy cup (she's just moving away from them). The others each have their own cup. Those are put up in sets that include one cup per person so all we have to do is take out a whole stack at the beginning of the day. Much better than stacking them by color.

[boscopup]

I also assume the lack of fresh veggies is because they live far from a grocery store. I try to grocery shop once a week only, since I live a good drive from the grocery store, plus if I enter the grocery store, I will spend $50 no matter how much I went in there for initially. :p So I spend less if I go once a week. Fresh veggies last a few days maybe. I can't buy fresh veggies to use 6 days from now. Just won't work. So I do a lot of frozen veggies. I have a garden, but... my kids are glad they aren't plants. Let's just leave it at that. ;) I know I've seen episodes where they said they have black thumbs, so that's probably why they don't have a garden. Can't say I blame them! I usually have a few veggies come up, but then I forget to water them or the squash bugs come in and take over my zuchini plants (I love zuchini!). Or I forget to weed the garden before everything goes to seed, so I now have rogue lettuce growing in the yard a couple feet from the raised bed. :lol: I'm actually surprised the resident rabbits haven't eaten that rogue lettice yet. I have a fence around the garden itself to keep them out. It's just a single 4'x4' garden, and I don't get as much out of it as I would like. It's cheaper for me to go buy frozen veggies. :rolleyes:

 

As far as farm animals go... What happens when they travel? Who would feed all those chickens and such?

[lea_lpz]

I know this is a old thread. Just popped up on a search about dressed only moms / quiverfull on the board and couldn't help but read. I wasn't on the board when the thread first appeared in Januaty yet.

 

I thought OP's post was really funny and dead on, but I like the Duggars and so my two cents about all the processed food, convince items, etc is old habit.

 

I think when the show first aired, money was tighter and they had little help; even the older girls were much younger. I am thinking about back when the Duggars were on 13 and pregnant again, or the family vacation, etc. plus all those years they were all very young, and Jim Bob worked a lot, I think they did get used to convenience foods or maybe they just grew up that way. Many people eat like this because that's what they know. But....

 

I think they caught on that people found their eating habits to be, well, bad. In recent shows, they've shared that Jim Bob was on a diet and eating healthier and Michelle is a life time weight watcher member now. Probably because the poor women has some time to herself now. They also include healthy recipes in their latest book. I think the tator tot casserole just stuck and might be a bit embarrassing for them but they humor us with it. It must be a Midwest / Southern thing because I never heard of it until the Duggars show.

 

But, the dishwasher thing and the garden seem like no brainers: they could, with the new industrial kitchen and 5 adult / teenage girls do dishes and cook more from scratch, as well as have a garden, which would give them some new show material I think they could use. Endless possibilities....

1) garden set up

2) building a chicken coupe

3) milking a cow or goats

4) homeschool garden / farm animals

5) preserving garden harvest

6)maybe even a side gig for the older kids selling produce at a Farmer's market

 

But....this would all honestly be time consuming. If they want to spend their days in the garden, making home cooked meals, feeding farm animals, being "keepers of the home types", awesome. But I think they are more interested in other pursuits....

 

Just my opinion.

 

If it were my land and home, there would be orchards, a vegetable garden, chickens at the very least, possibly a cow, goats, and pig. And probably hunting going on...but that's me.

 

And although I do mostly serve fresh produce at home, I am not ashamed of using the occasional cream of mushroom or chicken or cream of tomato soup in a meal. Although most ingredients are fresh. I use frozen peas and corn and canned green beans if I don't have fresh. I prefer fresh though...the first time I had fresh English peas was quite a revaluation to me having had canned growing up and hating them, upgrading to frozen as an adult and liking them and finally discovering fresh at a farmers market and loving them! Also, with a corn zipper, fresh corn is a snap. But these are seasonal so frozen are a necessity at least part of the year. Green beans are commonly available at the store year round, but I prefer the canned to make 3 beans salad in summer. Oh, yes, I will by canned beans too, like garbanzo, kidney, white beans, and black beans, but I like to make my own pinto beans and freeze them in 2 cup portions if I have extras.

 

Like most families, we mostly make healthy meals, but once a week or so might make comfort food that is higher in fat, but we try to make it occasional versus every day.

 

Peas straight from the can? Yuck!

 

Anna does home made baby food and even makes her own brown rice baby cereal.

 

Maybe they learned from viewer responses.

 

I have always seen it as just a lot cheaper to purée our own baby food. We don't eat all organic, but going to the farmers market I can get a full week's produce for a family of 5 for $20.

[Researcher]

Exactly! They have 2 fancy dishwashers, why the heck are they using paper plates?

 

Their food is what bother me the most...tater tot casserole...grumblegrumble.

 

One of the few episodes I saw showed the tater tot casserole. Gah! It was one of the grossest meals I've ever seen. I couldn't believe they really eat that stuff. :ack2:

[Amy in NH]

 

I worked at my kids summer camp a few times. They had a dishwasher that worked that fast, but it's more of a sterilizer than a dishwasher. The dishes have to be pretty clean going in to come out the other side all nice and hot and shiney. I never thought about the hot water it would require..but then they aren't doing dishes for 130 people per meal. I was just happy I wasn't bending over the sink doing all those dishes!

 

The way most of those industrial dishwashers work is that they fill with detergent and hot water when you turn them on, before running the dishes through. The machine heats the water to the appropriate temperature as it fills. The same water goes through a filter and then is recycled for every load you run. When you're finished, you drain the water from the dishwasher and clean out the filters.

 

I've not found that the dirty dishes need to be any cleaner going into an industrial washer than they do going into my dishwasher here at home, but the industrial washers use a lot less time and water (and probably cost a fortune).

[Bug's Mom]

I've not seen the Duggars.

I haven't had tater tot casserole since jr. high, though I do eat tater tots once in a while.

 

HOWEVER...how can there be so much talk about tater tots and not one clip of Napoleon Dynamite?!

[lea_lpz]

I've not seen the Duggars.

I haven't had tater tot casserole since jr. high, though I do eat tater tots once in a while.

 

HOWEVER...how can there be so much talk about tater tots and not one clip of Napoleon Dynamite?!

 

 

Lol I was totally thinking that :)

[Parrothead]

Just to be part of this thread (because I still have no opinion on the Duggars) I have to say I use paper as often as possible. I currently am dishwasher-less so it saves fresh water if I use paper.

[I.Dup.]

I'm surprised that so many people suggested gardening and homesteading like it's no big deal. There's no way I could get into something like that at this stage of life and I'm only pregnant with #7. Michelle admitted they're (well, she and Jim Bob anyway) aren't really animal people and so having a bunch of animals to care for would only require tons of education, supplies, and time. Not to mention what it would take to learn how to garden, take care of the land, grow the veggies, harvest, can, etc. It would be all they ever did! I can't imagine getting into something like that if I'd been having a baby each year for the last 18 years- no thanks!

[Murphy101]

I really don't care what the Duggars do or don't do. Paper plates every day, invest in Monsanto, eat tatertots casserole 3 times a day, disposable diapers. Just don't care.

 

Is it what I would do? Nope.

 

I could win a lottery and I still would never homestead, cloth diaper again, buy all organic and many other suggestions here.

 

Why?

 

Because I don't cotton pickin wanna and I don't have to, and because I'd suck at it and because we have other things that are a higher priority on our time and or finances.

 

I've only watched a few episodes of the first season on Netflix. Mostly we were all bored out of our minds watching it. The average very large family does not live anything like they do or have their income bracket, so there isn't much to compare. They seem nice enough, but I have no desire to live like them.

[Slartibartfast]

 

 

I agree with all of the terrible food comments. It's disturbing, actually. You know... they are 20+ people, at least 15 of whom are old enough/capable enough to do gardening. If 20 Hutterite women can raise enough food to feed 100 people for a year, then surely 15 Duggars can do way better than tatorfrikkintot casserole.

 

I agree, if I had 15 kids old enough to help in the garden my garden would be a paradise of delicious vegetables.

 

I probably wouldn't have a lot of animals, maybe some chickens or a goat but I do think all those kids would benefit from it.

[jujsky]

Exactly! They have 2 fancy dishwashers, why the heck are they using paper plates?

 

Their food is what bother me the most...tater tot casserole...grumblegrumble.

 

Every time I see tater tot casserole (actually, when I see most of the food they eat) I want to vomit. I'm not a health-food nut or anything, but ewwww! Feed your kids at least some fruits and veggies. I can even get my uber-picky kid to eat SOME healthy food.

[Slartibartfast]

 

 

I personally HATE gardening. So I'd flunk at any of that. DH has a community garden. I help him from time to time to be nice because it's a lot of work, but honestly I wish he'd give the dang thing up. I don't get the allure. More years than not we barely get anything because it's hard to grow stuff here.

 

But you are right. I don't have time or energy. And I only have 2 kids!

 

 

But she wouldn't even have to do anything, just sit in a chair with a mojito and direct. (ok she probably wouldn't have a mojito but I would)

 

Mojitos prevent scurvy so they are healthy. :lol:

[Bear23]

and their lifestyle. While I've never cared whether they have 1 kid or 19, I do now have some thoughts about other things. They need to put in some raised garden beds. They should stop buying jarred sauce and bagged iceberg lettuce. ;) They should also ditch the paper plates and cups. Did they not put in an industrial washing machine in with that kitchen? They could run it once a day. They should each have their own labled water bottles.

 

I also think the little ones would enjoy chickens and fetching eggs from nest boxes.

 

I hope you're all happy now. ;)

 

 

 

if they had their own family farm then they couldn't do all that traveling that they do. they'd actually have to stay home.

[beaners]

Food is fuel. If you get picky about what you put in the tank, your engine will die. Now shut up and eat your garbage.

 

That's all I can think of every time I see this thread.

[Joanne]

I have many things I dislike about the Duggars.

 

Their food style isn't on my list. LOL

[cathmom]

Wondered why I was getting likes on something I didn't even remember posting LOL. At this point in my life you couldn't pay me to have a garden!

[Slartibartfast]

 

 

 

if they had their own family farm then they couldn't do all that traveling that they do. they'd actually have to stay home.

 

That is true, you can't really leave cows a lot.

[meggie]

That is true, you can't really leave cows a lot.

 

:iagree:

 

And if they didn't do all that traveling, they'd lose their TLC show. Do you think TLC pays them to do the same thing over and over and over again or is there a reason they're always off on some new adventure? (Hint: it's because the viewers want new events to watch)

[Georgiana Daniels]

My mom mails poptarts to my kids because she knows I deprive them. :tongue_smilie:

 

I bought Pop Tarts for a recent trip and got lectured from a family member about transfats. UGH. Just wanted to enjoy the rare treat in peace, lol.

[Saille]

I can't help laughing about the frozen veggie thing, b/c I freeze a lot of the veggies I grow. I do that instead of canning b/c the heat of processing can destroy a lot of nutrients, and you lose more if you don't consume the liquid they're canned in. I don't buy most canned veggies, for the reasons others have listed, but I do buy canned "dry bean" beans, and tomato products when my garden has a bad year.

 

I know exactly what bothers me about the Duggars' eating habits: anthropological dominionism. (Years ago, I simply said "dominionism" on the boards, and got schooled.) In short, having nineteen kids is...well, I have opinions about their reasons for doing it, but that's a seperate issue. But then there are all the collateral costs, like using a huge, gas-guzzling vehicle when we're having energy issues, eating all these highly processed foods, which in a smaller nuclear family...OK, it's their business. But when you're going to send nineteen people out into the world pre-programmed to raise my insurance premiums...that frankly makes me angry.

 

Further, convenience foods b/c the kids can't cook? That dog won't hunt. The show gets plenty of mileage out of how the older kids help with the younger ones, and my 9 and 11 year-olds can cook plenty of simple things relatively unsupervised. Cleaning up...now that's another issue, lol, but they can cook, and my six-year-old can certainly make a sandwich, a salad, hummus and veggies or crackers, etc.. He can cut up cheese. He can also heat up leftovers of meals made from scratch. He loves to be a "sous chef" for the rest of us.

 

Anyway, yeah, they sort of drive me crazy.

[Mrs Mungo]

 

I bought Pop Tarts for a recent trip and got lectured from a family member about transfats. UGH. Just wanted to enjoy the rare treat in peace, lol.

 

 

If I gave my kids poptarts in the car, OMG, they would never stop talking. I would have to take a sleeping pill and then who would drive (we often travel without dh). We have an overstimulation with carbs thing.

 

I am not going to judge anyone for giving poptarts as a once in a while treat. It's just not something *I* would buy.

[Saddlemomma]

Yep! we have 50 acres. I used to have 5 horses, but when my dh lost his job in 2009, I sold all but 2. One has since died. However, what saved us during that time (2 years) was our garden. We produce a lot of our own veggies and freeze them. I didn't have to buy veggies in the store unless it was lettuce or tomatoes. (I don't can). We also butcher our own pigs, and own chickens for eggs.

 

Dh got his job back in 2011, but I didn't want to risk getting more horses (vet bills are expensive) in case the job disappeared again. Now we have 2, 40X60 garden plots, a greenhouse, apple, pear, cherry and plum trees, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry bushes, strawberries, asparagus, grape and kiwi vines. We made our own grape jelly this year as we had a bumper crop. The fruit trees are just starting to produce a little fruit because they are still young. We slaughtered our pig just last month and still have some pork left from last year. We have two freezers; one chest and one upright, filled to the brim with home-grown produce. By the way, anyone need some eggs? We have 4 dozen sitting in the fridge....lol...time to do some more baking.

[FriedClams]

I have to disagree on the Eco-footprint stuff. Yes, they have big cars but I would guess the cost per mile per person is less than a family of four in a nonhybrid vehicle. They don't buy new stuff - they buy used. So they may not garden, but they aren't buying a ton of cheap clothes made in China, or new cars, etc. They don't believe in clutter - I read each kid has one banker box for treasures - so less junk bought/stored/decluttered. Their food choices appear to be wrong - but on the flip side they appear to be healthy and are within healthy weight ranges. The obviously practice moderation. They talked about their dental stuff, and not one kid had a cavity until they moved to their new house with well water so they attacked the problem. They've talked about making dental routines a high priority to keep the costs down for care. They focus on prevention. The don't do TV - so they run and play and the kids spend tons of time outdoors.

 

Yes, I am a Duggar fan. I like that they're kind to one another and that my kids can watch them without me. I also love the new Bates show!! They're like the Duggars but are funnier and more real. The kids are *all* encouraged to get a college degree. Some of the girls talked about hating cooking... They're just very genuine. They seem like a wonderful family. Love them!

 

ETA - The Bates just built a chicken coop. It was very funny!